Working mothers: Have you asked for flexibility at work?

It was 2005 and Newman was overwhelmed with long corporate banking hours at Wachovia. And she had a baby at home. She couldn’t do it anymore. She said she would leave her job and become a town banker, a job that would let her leave at 5 p.m. every day.

To her surprise, her boss looked at her and said, “You’re not leaving.” He told her the bank would do whatever it took to keep her there — even if it meant more flexible hours and working remotely.

At the time, Newman was a vice president of portfolio management for Wachovia’s corporate and investment bank. Now, nine years later, she is a director of the power and utilities corporate banking group for Wells Fargo and has two kids under 10 at home.

Newman, 40, says that moment in her boss’s office was a turning point in her career. That was when she realized her superiors valued the talent she brought to the bank enough to make a special arrangement for her.

At the time, Newman said she was the exception rather than the rule, and it was hard to ignore the looks from her co-workers when she packed up her things to leave at 5 p.m.

But she wasn’t working any less than her co-workers; her hours were just very different.

“I’d leave at 5, and people would look. Then I took a few hours to spend with my son,” Newman said. “By 8 p.m. I would log back on and work until 1 or 2 in the morning.”

Newman said that she feels like she was the beginning of a wave of people requesting more flexible hours at the bank.

“It is the difference between losing talent and keeping it,” Newman said. “And the more senior you become, the harder it is to replace talent.”

Have you encountered a moment when you realized your work schedule no longer fits your lifestyle? Have you ever asked for help? We want to hear from you.